Americans United - James C. Dobsonhttp://www.au.org/resources/religious-right/james-c-dobson
James Dobson, a child psychologist and author, founded Focus on the Family (FOF) in 1977 to combat what he saw as rising permissiveness in American society.Raised in the strict Church of the Nazarene, Dobson came to public attention though his book Dare to Discipline, which encouraged the use of corporal punishment at a time when many child-rearing experts were moving away from it. Through daily radio broadcasts, Dobson’s popularity grew rapidly among evangelicals, and he built FOF into a multi-million dollar enterprise.In recent years, Dobson has intervened more directly in partisan politics, forming Focus on the Family Action and issuing personal endorsements of conservative candidates in political races. Dobson opposes church-state separation, reproductive choice and gay rights. In November of 2006, he told CNN’s Larry King, “The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. No, it’s not. That is not in the Constitution.”enEvangelical Angst?: Religious Right Leaders Continue Embrace Of Trump – But Not Everyone Is On Board http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/evangelical-angst-religious-right-leaders-continue-embrace-of-trump-but-not
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>At a meeting with evangelical leaders yesterday, Donald Trump promised to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/20/how-can-trump-win-the-many-undecided-evangelicals-we-asked-them/">abolish restrictions on church politicking</a> if elected president.</p>
<p>“I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity – and other religions – is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it,” he said, as reported by <em>The Washington Post</em>.</p>
<p>Trump also promised to appoint anti-abortion justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and would ensure that department store employees are required to say “Merry Christmas” during the holiday season.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="/files/trump.face.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 700px;" /><br /><br /><em>Trump: Making further inroads with the Religious Right.</em></p>
<p>Roughly 1,000 evangelical leaders attended the event, which the Trump campaign organized in a bid to shore up religious support for the candidate. Trump also announced the formation of an Evangelical Advisory Board at the meeting, and its members include some Religious Right figures who’d previously criticized the candidate for his impiety. Others have checkered pasts that could trouble voters.</p>
<p>Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, is one of Trump’s new advisors, and he praised the candidate yesterday for his commitment to the Religious Right’s values.<br /><br />
“I certainly liked what I saw today,” <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-evangelicals-christians-224635">Dobson told <em>Politico</em></a>. But that’s a significant shift for Dobson: In December, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/10/evangelical-leaders-are-frantically-looking-for-ways-to-defeat-donald-trump/">he told <em>The</em> <em>Post</em></a> that he is “very wary” of Trump, specifically due to the mogul’s casino properties.</p>
<p>“I don’t believe Trump is really conservative,” he opined at the time.<br /><br />
It’s not clear why Dobson changed his mind. But he may have been persuaded by the star power Trump managed to recruit. Dobson joins former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., former Southern Baptist Convention official Richard Land and a number of televangelists, including Paula White, David Jeremiah and Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, as an advisor to the Trump campaign.<br /><br />
White and the Copelands, of course, <a href="http://religiondispatches.org/grassley-staff-memo-on-televangelists-makes-clear-religious-right-opposition-to-government-oversight/">share the dubious distinction</a> of being among the few televangelists ever investigated for potentially violating their ministries’ tax-exempt status. That investigation was launched, and subsequently quashed, by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) after outcry from the Religious Right. Their presences on Trump’s advisory board suggest they may be the source of Trump’s sudden interest in loosening certain IRS restrictions for churches.<br /><br />
Land, too, is a strange choice, especially if Trump hopes to win minority voters. Land stepped down from his role as the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in 2012 after he claimed that a black man is “statistically more likely to do you harm than a white man.” As Aaron Weaver <a href="http://religiondispatches.org/richard-land-steps-down-but-not-out-of-the-culture-wars/">reported for Religion Dispatches</a> at the time, Land had no black employees.<br /><br />
But Land has also long promoted a political marriage between the Religious Right and the Republican party. “The go-along, get-along strategy is dead,” Land once said. “No more engagement. We want a wedding ring, we want a ceremony, we want a consummation of marriage.”</p>
<p>It appears that Trump proposed, and Richard Land accepted.<br /><br />
Though Trump’s overtures satisfied Land and many of his peers, other evangelicals and conservative Christian leaders still object to the candidate. <a href="https://mereorthodoxy.com/evangelical-capitulation-exclusive-documents-meeting-trump/">In a post for Mere Orthodoxy,</a> Matthew Lee Anderson derided yesterday’s meeting as a “campaign rally” and noted that the campaign handed out “prayer guides” to participants.</p>
<p>“The documents provide a bit of insight into the mindset of the organizers of the conference. They are mostly benign, and intentionally aim to be neutral,” Anderson wrote. “But they are generally oriented toward overcoming any internal objections or hesitations or sense of ‘judgment’ about others and the candidate.”</p>
<p>Land’s successor, Russell Moore, also reiterated his objection to Trump on Twitter yesterday. “If you wondered why younger, theological, gospel-centered evangelicals reacted [negatively] to the old guard Religious Right, well, now you know,” he tweeted.</p>
<p>That old guard clearly believes their old alliance with the Republican Party still holds; that Trump, if elected, will assist their campaign to redefine the First Amendment. Their younger allies, however, may be souring on the arrangement.</p>
<p>P.S. Remember, Americans United is sponsoring a petition urging the IRS to crackdown on unlawful pulpit politicking. You can sign it <a href="http://projectfairplay.squarespace.com/petition">here</a>. </p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-groups-involvement-in-candidate-elections">Religious Groups’ Involvement in Candidate Elections</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/russell-moore">Russell Moore</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/michelle-bachmann">Michelle Bachmann</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/2016-presidential-election">2016 Presidential Election</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/church-politicking">church politicking</a></span></div></div>Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:22:30 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones12029 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/evangelical-angst-religious-right-leaders-continue-embrace-of-trump-but-not#commentsPharisees And Sadducees: The Religious Right Reacts To Orlando By Doubling Downhttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pharisees-and-sadducees-the-religious-right-reacts-to-orlando-by-doubling
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden visited relatives of the Orlando dead yesterday. While they paid their respects, however, some Christian fundamentalists chose to celebrate the massacre.</p>
<p>“The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die. The tragedy is – I’m kind of upset that he [Omar Mateen] didn’t finish the job!” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/14/pastor-refuses-to-mourn-orlando-victims-the-tragedy-is-that-more-of-them-didnt-die/">said Pastor Roger Jimenez</a> of Sacramento’s Verity Baptist Church. “I wish the government would round them all up, put them up against a firing wall, put a firing squad in front of them, and blow their brains out.”</p>
<p>Jimenez wasn’t the only one. According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/14/pastor-refuses-to-mourn-orlando-victims-t"><em>The Washington</em> <em>Post</em></a>, Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., also praised the shooting.<br /><br />
“The good news is that at least 50 of these pedophiles are not going to be harming children anymore,” he said. “The bad news is that a lot of the homos in the bar are still alive, so they’re going to continue to molest children and recruit people into their filthy homosexual lifestyle. The other bad news is that this is going to now be used as propaganda not only against Muslims but also against Christians.”<br /><br /><img alt="" src="/files/pictures/LGBTPride.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 467px;" /><br /><br /><em>Love is not a threat. (Source: Getty) </em></p>
<p>This rhetoric is obviously extreme, but it’s also not new. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/opinion/campaign-stops/ted-cruz-and-the-anti-gay-pastor.html?_r=0">Colorado pastor Kevin Swanson</a> claimed the Bible demanded the death penalty for homosexual activity mere moments before introducing U.S. Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at a “religious liberty” conference last fall.<br /><br />
Most members of the Religious Right stop short of calling for the execution of LGBT people, but they have long promoted the idea that LGBT rights pose an existential threat to the family. Some have taken it even further than this: Focus on the Family founder James Dobson <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-dobson-god-will-destroy-america-legalizing-sexual-perversion">posited in 2014</a> that God would have to destroy America for its support of LGBT rights, just as he once destroyed Rome and Pompeii.<br /><br />
Cruz’s father, Raphael, said something similar in 2015, not long before hitting the campaign trail for his son’s doomed presidential bid. The U.S. Supreme Court’s verdict on marriage, <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/home/3112120-155/gay-marriage-could-destroy-america-ted">he claimed,</a> “could destroy America.”</p>
<p>But reserve the gold medal for the Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, who <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/this-is-beginning-of-end-of-western-civilization/#!">once said</a> that marriage equality would be “the beginning of the end of Western civilization.”</p>
<p>And again: After Orlando, most members of the Religious Right expressed sorrow for deaths – but they did not apologize for the rhetoric they spewed in the years leading up to those deaths. Others, like <em>The Federalist</em>’s John Daniel Davidson, <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2016/06/14/what-if-mateen-wasnt-targeting-gay-people-at-all/">have argued</a> the massacre wasn’t about LGBT people at all. In fact, Davidson implied, if you believed <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/orlando-nightclub-massacre/terror-hate-what-motivated-orlando-nightclub-shooter-n590496">multiple reports</a> that Mateen hated LGBT people and was enraged by the sight of men kissing you’re just a liberal stooge.</p>
<p>“If the Orlando massacre turns out to be just another terrorist attack by a radical Muslim who hates the West and loves ISIS, what use would it be as a domestic political weapon?” he wrote.<br /><br />
People like John Daniel Davidson don’t want you think they’re excusing Omar Mateen’s violence. People like John Daniel Davidson want you think they’re just asking logical questions. But this is really all a smokescreen.</p>
<p>It is very convenient for the Religious Right to pretend that Omar Mateen did not actually intend to target LGBT people. It is necessary, even, for them to do so. They have to erase LGBT people from this event in order to convince themselves that it’s nothing to do with them. It’s nothing to do with the fact they’ve dehumanized LGBT people as dangerous deviants for decades, that they’ve agitated against equal civil rights on the basis that extending those rights will lead to the destruction of all we hold dear.</p>
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/06/15/3788573/lgbtq-violence-report/">ThinkProgress reported</a> earlier this week that from 2014 to 2015, there was a 20 percent increase in hate crimes against LGBT people. Rhetoric has consequences. Most people won’t become vigilantes, certainly. They’ll simply manifest prejudice in smaller ways. They’ll publicly humiliate you on the premises of their secular, for-profit business because hey, you can just go somewhere else, right? Maybe they’re your neighbors. Maybe they treat you like an evangelization project instead of a person. Maybe you’ll catch them muttering about moral ruin; quiet but audible, because the point is for you to hear them.</p>
<p>And <a href="http://www.thetrevorproject.org/pages/facts-about-suicide">if you succumb</a>, one more death by a thousand cuts, your life becomes a culture war anecdote in death.<br /><br /><em>See? Being gay isn’t healthy</em>. That’s what they’ll say. But at least they didn’t say you should be executed, so don’t you dare call them bigots.</p>
<p>We’ve always had extremists. And banning Muslims isn’t going to solve the problem.</p>
<p> </p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/marriage">Marriage</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lgbt-rights">LGBT rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/marriage-equality-0">Marriage Equality</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/hate-crimes">hate crimes</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mat-staver">Mat Staver</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/sen-ted-cruz">Sen. Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/raphael-cruz">Raphael Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tim-huelskamp">Tim Huelskamp</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/kevin-swanson">Kevin Swanson</a></span></div></div>Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:23:36 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones12025 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pharisees-and-sadducees-the-religious-right-reacts-to-orlando-by-doubling#commentsFocus On The Problems: Public School Districts Are Using A Religious Right Group’s Materials In Classeshttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/focus-on-the-problems-public-school-districts-are-using-a-religious-right
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Some public school districts are using a Religious Right group’s materials for health and “character education” classes, church-state activist Zack Kopplin reported <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/education/2016/06/14/3788114/focus-on-the-family-schools/">yesterday for ThinkProgress</a>. Focus on the Family’s children’s shows, parenting training and other instructional materials are currently promoted by a number of school districts in several states. </p>
<p>According to Kopplin, public schools in Spartanburg, S.C., and Largo, Fla. show episodes of “McGee and Me,” a Focus on the Family (FOF) production, to students.<br /><br />
“‘McGee and Me’ describes itself as “an animated wonder that teaches biblical values,’” Kopplin wrote. “In one episode, all the bullies hate Christmas because they’re not Christian, and they’re actually bullies because their fathers were alcoholics.”<br /><br /><a href="/files/publicschool.jpg"><img alt="" src="/files/publicschool_0.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 467px;" /></a></p>
<p><em>This is not a church.</em></p>
<p>That sounds about right.</p>
<p>Like many former fundamentalists, I am all too familiar with “McGee and Me” – though it’s hardly the worst Christian children’s show in existence. That honor likely belongs to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEjyZTimV8U">“Psalty,”</a> which purportedly follows the adventures of a singing anthropomorphic hymn book. Psalty and his terrifying mouse friends lead their “little praisers” on a series of Pied Piper-esque adventures that are allegedly about Jesus. He will haunt my nightmares until I die, and that’s probably the point of the show.</p>
<p>On a scale of “Psalty” to, say, “Veggie Tales,” “McGee and Me” hovers somewhere in the middle. But it still doesn’t belong in public schools. None of these shows do because they’re designed to convert children to a very specific branch of Christianity. The connection of “McGee and Me” to Focus on the Family is of particular concern: As Kopplin notes in his piece, FOF promotes the use of violent corporal punishment on children.</p>
<p>The organization’s founder, Dr. James Dobson, is a child psychologist, and has for decades deployed his academic credentials to defend extreme views on child discipline.<br /><br />
“[P]ain is a marvelous purifier,” he wrote in 1970’s <em>Dare to Discipline</em>. “It is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.”</p>
<p>In <em>The Strong-Willed Child</em>, Dobson graphically described <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-falconer-newhall/james-dobson-beat-your-do_b_5953878.html">beating his pet dachschund</a> after it refused to get into its crate. Dobson didn’t include this anecdote as a charming aside; instead, it’s framed as a model for parents.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/18/19-states-still-allow-corporal-punishment-in-school/">Thirty-one states</a> have banned the use of corporal punishment in public schools. Minnesota is one of them. But Kopplin reports that at least one Minnesota school district included FOF in an official children’s resource guide. California has also banned corporal punishment in schools – but San Bernardino’s Thompson Elementary still promotes FOF materials for “parenting training.”</p>
<p>Dobson’s books have sold millions of copies and Dobson himself is still something of a celebrity among evangelicals, even though he no longer runs Focus on the Family. So it’s difficult to believe that school officials don’t know about his views (“McGee and Me,” after all, isn’t exactly a mainstream phenomenon). Further, Focus on the Family has long been a public antagonist to LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and even public education. Dobson has consistently championed Christian homeschooling as an ideologically pure alternative to public schools.</p>
<p>It’s particularly strange, then, that public school officials would look to his organization for curricular materials. Strange, and possibly unconstitutional.</p>
<p>The group’s materials on discipline, child health and even school bullies are shaped by its sectarian perspective. It’s even in the organization’s name: Focus on the Family promotes a fundamentalist vision of what the American family ought to be.</p>
<p>Public schools don’t lack secular alternatives to Focus on the Family. They should use them.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/bibles-and-religious-texts-curricula">Bibles and Religious Texts in Curricula</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religion-public-schools">Religion in Public Schools</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/proselytization">proselytization</a></span></div></div>Wed, 15 Jun 2016 16:21:56 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones12023 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/focus-on-the-problems-public-school-districts-are-using-a-religious-right#commentsFocus On The Prize: Storied Religious Right Group Changes Strategy, But Not Goalshttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/focus-on-the-prize-storied-religious-right-group-changes-strategy-but-not
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Political Research Associates’ L. Cole Parke reports that Tom Minnery, who has led the group for 30 years, just stepped down in favor of hand-picked successor Paul Weber. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Focus on the Family’s public policy arm, CitizenLink, has undergone a leadership shift in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling.<br /><br />Political Research Associates’ L. Cole Parke <a href="http://www.politicalresearch.org/2015/06/12/citizenlink-prepares-to-muscle-up-for-one-man-one-woman-marriage/#sthash.HOw0yhpS.5OtRXUNj.dpbs">reports</a> that Tom Minnery, who has led the group for 30 years, just stepped down in favor of hand-picked successor Paul Weber. Weber had previously served as the vice president of communications and development for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).</p><p>Kim Trobee, a producer for CitizenLink radio, announced the transition in <a href="http://www.citizenlink.com/2015/06/03/citizenlink-names-new-president-video/">a video message</a> to supporters. “Our president, Tom Minnery, has decided to take a step back on a new project,” she said.</p><p>In the same video, Minnery states, “Paul’s talents go far beyond mine in building an organization and helping us reach more people with our message, so I am so pleased that he said ‘yes.’”</p><p>Added Weber, “CitizenLink is planning on going back to the firm foundation that Tom has established,” he said. He and Minnery took care to clarify that Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and of Citizen Link, is, in Minnery’s words, “at the root of all this.” </p><p>Dobson stepped down as the head of Focus in 2010, turning control over to Jim Daly, regarded by many as a less vociferous culture warrior. But CitizenLink's most recent announcement makes it clear Dobson still casts a shadow over the organization.</p><p>“His principles still endure, and our friendship with Focus on the Family endures, and Jim Daly and the Focus on the Family board are wonderfully supportive of CitizenLink going in this new direction,” Minnery added. (Citizen Link is legally separate from Focus on the Family.)</p><p>So what is this “new direction?” Parke speculates that Weber’s appointment is a signal that the group is preparing itself for an aggressive response to marriage equality; most observers believe the Supreme Court is likely to rule in favor of equality at some point in the next week.</p><p>Weber’s experience at the ADF, then, would be useful to a fiercer CitizenLink.</p><p>The ADF is arguably the largest – and most aggressive – legal organization within the Religious Right, and they’ve already taken up a number of so-called “religious refusals” cases. These cases, which are marketed as part of a broader “religious freedom” push, typically involve devout business owners who discriminate against LGBT customers in deliberate violation of local public accommodation laws.</p><p>CitizenLink, of course, is no stranger to this strategy. Via its network of state-level “Family Policy Councils,” it has advocated for bills like Arizona’s infamous (and ultimately doomed) version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). That bill would have permitted business owners to discriminate against LGBT customers regardless of any local anti-discrimination ordinances that might be in place.</p><p>The organization has also <a href="http://www.metroweekly.com/2015/06/carl-demaio-ultimate-betrayal/">campaigned against</a> openly LGBT candidates for office, <a href="http://www.coloradoindependent.com/75892/in-pr-battle-focus-on-the-family-concedes-fair-minded-coloradans-would-support-civil-unions">opposed legal civil unions</a> for same-sex couples, and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/09/AR2010070905499.html">defended same-sex marriage bans</a>.</p><p>Weber’s appointment is evidence that the group has likely resigned itself to a loss at the Supreme Court – but not necessarily to the reality of legal same-sex marriage. Parke notes, correctly, that religious refusals cases are “[A]n echo of the anti-abortion movement’s state-by-state chip away strategy – a nod to the lesson that no defeat is ever final.”</p><p>As for Minnery, he’s not stepping away from the group entirely. Instead, he’ll helm CitizenLink’s “Statesmen Academy.” There’s little public information about the “academy,” but CitizenLink’s website <a href="http://www.citizenlink.com/about-us/">claims that it’s intended to</a> “…encourage statesmen with the training, resources and community they need to advance biblical values through their calling to public service.”</p><p>The culture wars aren’t over just yet.</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-refusals-and-rfra">Religious Refusals and RFRA</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/marriage">Marriage</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/citizenlink">Citizenlink</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tom-minnery">Tom Minnery</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/paul-weber">Paul Weber</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/kim-trobee">Kim Trobee</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lgbt-rights">LGBT rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-refusals">Religious Refusals</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/au-defends-marriage-equality">AU Defends Marriage Equality</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/au-celebrates-and-defends-marriage-equality">AU Celebrates -- And Defends -- Marriage Equality!</a></span></div></div>Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:49:55 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones11204 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/focus-on-the-prize-storied-religious-right-group-changes-strategy-but-not#commentsCourtroom Clashhttp://www.au.org/church-state/june-2015-church-state/featured/courtroom-clash
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>As the U.S. Supreme Court pre­pared to hear oral arguments in a case concerning the constitutionality of marriage equality, Religious Right groups began to get antsy.</p><p>On April 24, just days before the argument, the Rev. Rick Scarborough, a Religious Right back bencher from Texas, convened a press conference in Washington, D.C. Scarborough, author of a book titled <em>In Defense of Mixing Church and State</em>, raised familiar Religious Right arguments: that extending marriage equality nationwide would compel pastors to perform such unions and that it would lead to widespread “religious liberty” violations.</p><p>Scarborough accused liberal clergy of tossing the Bible aside to remain culturally relevant. Ultimately, he said, the clash over same-sex marriage won’t be settled in legislatures or in courtrooms but “in heaven.”</p><p>Joining Scarborough at the podium were Keith Fournier, a right-wing Roman Catholic who used to hang out with the Christian Coalition back in the 1990s; Mat Staver, the founder of the Liberty Counsel; E.W. Jackson, a pastor known for his homophobia and his failed candidacy for lieutenant governor of Virginia, and Janet Boynes, who runs an “ex-gay” ministry.</p><p>James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, was supposed to be there but sent a video instead. During his message, Dobson asserted that pastors may soon be imprisoned for refusing to officiate at same-sex weddings.</p><p>“God help us if we throw his design for marriage on the ash heap of history,” Dobson said.</p><p> The day of the argument, April 28, proponents and opponents of marriage equality were well represented outside the high court. Among the supporters of same-sex marriage was a contingent from Americans United. AU supporters carried colorful signs noting that U.S. law is based on the Constitution, not the Bible.</p><p>The atmosphere outside the Sup­reme Court was raucous and occasionally a little tense as police labored to keep the two sides apart. Inside the courtroom, things were more sedate, although the argument was sharp and spirited.</p><p>Most oral arguments before the Supreme Court last an hour. It’s perhaps an indication of the importance of this case that the high court extended the argument to two and a half hours.</p><p>Two questions were considered: Does the Constitution (specifically, the 14th Amendment) require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same gender, and does the 14th Amendment require a state to recognize a same-sex marriage performed by another state?</p><p>Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is considered the swing vote, so all eyes and ears were on him. Kennedy seemed to play both sides of the aisle. Early in the argument, the justice quizzed Mary L. Bonauto, the attorney arguing for the same-sex couples, asserting that one man/one woman marriage has been the standard for ages.</p><p>“This definition has been with us for millennia,” Kennedy said. “And it, it’s very difficult for the court to say, ‘Oh, well, we, we know better.’”</p><p>But later, Kennedy questioned John J. Bursch, special assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan who argued against marriage equality, and asserted that same-sex couples are really seeking the “dignity” that only legal marriage can bring.</p><p>“Same-sex couples say, ‘Of course, we understand the nobility and the sacredness of the marriage. We know we can’t procreate, but we want the other attributes of it in order to show that we, too, have a dignity that can be fulfilled,’” Kennedy said.</p><p>Other justices went off on strange tangents. Justice Samuel A. Alito aggressively questioned all of the attorneys, at one point bringing up ancient Greece. Alito’s point seemed to be that since the ancient Greeks tolerated homosexual acts but did not legalize same-sex marriage, not all bans on same-sex marriage are rooted in anti-gay animus.</p><p>“People like Plato wrote in favor of [same-sex relationships], did he not?” Alito asked Bonauto, later adding, “So their limiting marriage to couples of the opposite sex was not based on prejudice against gay people, was it?”</p><p>Bonauto replied, “I can’t speak to what was happening with the ancient philosophers.”</p><p>Alito also challenged Bonauto over the issue of polygamy, demanding to know if same-sex marriage would lead to legal unions between “four people, two men and two women….And let’s say they’re all consenting adults, highly educated. They’re all lawyers.”</p><p>Bonauto replied that the government would have a legitimate interest in banning such relationships because they spawn too many complex issues related to consent, child-rearing, child custody and potential fallout from divorce.</p><p>Justice Antonin Scalia relentlessly badgered Bonauto on the question of how marriage equality might affect clergy, asserting that pastors could be compelled to perform marriages for same-sex couples.</p><p>Insisting that he has concerns about “the wisdom of this court imposing through the Constitution a, a requirement of action which is unpalatable to many of our citizens for religious reasons,” Scalia repeatedly raised the specter of ministers being forced to marry same-sex couples.</p><p>“[I]s it conceivable that a minister who is authorized by the state to conduct marriage can decline to marry two men if indeed this court holds that they have a constitutional right to marry?” Scalia asked. “Is it conceivable that that would be allowed?”</p><p>Bonauto dismissed the concern, pointing out that the First Amendment gives clergy the right to determine who qualifies for sacraments.</p><p>But Scalia continued to press the point, which led Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to jump in. Sotomayor noted that no clergy members have been forced to perform same-sex marriages in the states where marriage equality is the law, while Kagan pointed out that some rabbis will not marry a couple unless both parties are Jewish, and none of them have been legally forced to change their policies.</p><p>(Not long after this exchange, Bonauto yielded the podium to U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who argued in favor of same-sex marriage on behalf of the Obama administration. Verrilli had barely started speaking when a man in the spectators’ gallery began screaming about hell­fire and damnation. As the Sup­reme Court police dragged him away, Scalia quipped, “It was rather refreshing, actually.”)</p><p>Much of the argument focused on the rights of children. This is because Michigan’s chief argument is that permitting same-sex marriage will endanger children.</p><p>This assertion has never been terribly persuasive, but Bursch was stuck with it. He insisted that legalizing same-sex marriage will somehow lead opposite-sex couples to take marriage less seriously.</p><p>Several of the justices from the high court’s liberal wing challenged Bursch. They noted that if ensuring the well-being of children is the state’s goal, it would make sense to extend marriage to the many same-sex couples who are raising kids.</p><p>Because the court is considering two questions, a split decision is possible. The high court could rule that states are not required to allow same-sex couples to marry within their own borders but that they must recognize the legal same-sex unions of other states.</p><p>Normally, states recognize one another’s marriages as a matter of course. This is because Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution, the “Full Faith and Credit Clause,” requires each state to recognize the “public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” But some states don’t want to do that in the case of same-sex marriage. (Even Scalia seemed to concede that there’s no way around the Full Faith and Credit Clause.)</p><p>Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn joined Americans United staff members and supporters outside the court on April 28. “The Supreme Court has an opportunity here to expand personal freedom and make it clear that marriage is a civil matter that must not be denied to loving couples simply because of someone else’s religious beliefs,” Lynn said. “Let’s hope the justices take it.” </p></div></div><a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><h3 >Supreme Court Takes Up Issues Of Same-Sex Marriage In Historic&nbsp;Argument</h3><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Featured</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/marriage">Marriage</a></span></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-11140" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/us-supreme-court">The U.S. Supreme Court</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/focus-on-the-family">Focus on the Family</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right People:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/james-c-dobson">James C. Dobson</a></span></div></div>Mon, 01 Jun 2015 03:45:00 +0000Timothy Ritz11141 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/church-state/june-2015-church-state/featured/courtroom-clash#commentsPoison Pen: James Dobson’s Latest Missive Misses The Mark http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/poison-pen-james-dobson-s-latest-missive-misses-the-mark
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Don&#039;t read James Dobson&#039;s letter as a declaration of Religious Right surrender. That is not what it is at all.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>A letter drafted by Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family (FOF), has been getting some attention on social media sites and blogs lately.</p><p>In<a href="http://drjamesdobson.org/about/commentaries/standing-for-family"> the missive</a>, Dobson, a child psychologist who founded what has become one of the largest and most powerful Religious Right groups in the nation, surveyed the results of the November election. He’s not happy.</p><p>“I'm sure many of you are discouraged in the aftermath of the National Elections, especially in view of the moral and spiritual issues that took such a beating on November 6th,” Dobson wrote. “Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat.”</p><p>Dobson, who left FOF a few years ago and now runs a smaller radio outfit called Family Talk, doesn’t understand what went wrong. The Democratic Party platform, he notes, supported legal abortion and same-sex marriage. Those pesky Democrats didn’t even include references to God until they were shamed into it!</p><p>By contrast, the Republican platform, Dobson reports, “was one of the finest conservative documents of this era. It was strongly pro-life, pro-marriage, and contained other components that conservatives cheered.”</p><p>Dobson pointed out that his pal Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, chaired the committee that wrote the platform.</p><p>What went wrong? By Dobson’s telling, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney refused to embrace this fine conservative platform. Instead, Romney just droned on and on about jobs and the economy.</p><p>“It was as though America cared about nothing but money,” Dobson wrote. “I didn’t believe it then and I don't believe it now. As important as the creation of jobs is, this nation is also about righteousness in the culture, about the preservation of families, about the welfare of children in the schools, and about the military and its gay agenda.”</p><p>Dobson and his cronies just don’t get it. All of that stuff came up during the campaign. Romney moved far to the right during the primary. He also gave the commencement address at Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University, promised to defund Planned Parenthood and Big Bird and even put U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) a Religious Right favorite, on the ticket.</p><p>But the emphasis on social issues didn’t help. In fact, it scared the bejesus out of lot of voters, especially women, people who live in urban areas, minority voters, highly educated folks and secular voters.</p><p>All of the talk from the Religious Right and the Catholic bishops about restricting access to birth control and their rather crude gay bashing led these voters to flee from the GOP ticket. Vile comments about “legitimate rape” from some Republican Senate candidates didn’t help.</p><p>As a result, a depressed Dobson says, we’re stuck with President Barack Obama, “a president who often ignores the Constitution and imposes dictatorial powers on the American people.” (Really? Have you noticed that lately? The dictatorship thing? From what I recall, we had a democratic election, and Obama won more votes than Romney in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Plus, Obama hardly ever <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8325274/Mussolini-balcony-to-be-reopened-after-decades-of-neglect.html">stands on a balcony</a> wearing a goofy hat vowing to make the trains run on time. Some dictator!)</p><p>Added Dobson, “Some people believe, and I am one of them, that Barack Obama is the worst president in American history.”</p><p>Whatever.</p><p>OK, Jim’s not happy. We can see that. But some people are drawing the wrong conclusion from his letter, reading it as declaration of Religious Right surrender. That is not what it is at all.</p><p>In fact, Dobson tells his troops to gird for even more battles.</p><p>“Christians must continue to defend righteousness in the land, regardless of the political consequences,” Dobson writes. “I can tell you without equivocation that Family Talk will not compromise with evil…. It is never right to do what is wrong, and we will stand our ground in the defense of biblical principles.”</p><p>Speaking as a card-carrying member of the “Evil Caucus,” let me be the first to tell Jim that we’re not interested in compromising with him either. We are interested in defeating him and sending his views back to the Dark Ages, whence they came. So game on.</p><p>Look, Dobson’s not stupid. He writes letters like this for a reason: to fire up his followers and convince them to donate to his cause and get active. Dobson knows that the U.S. House of Representatives remains under conservative control and that, thanks to gerrymandering, it’s likely to remain that way. He also knows that many state legislatures fell under the sway of extreme Tea Party groups and their Religious Right allies in 2010. They remain open to him and his radical ideas.</p><p>Dobson may be angry about November’s results, but he’s not going anywhere. That means you shouldn’t either.</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-dobson">James Dobson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/focus-family">Focus On The Family</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/president-barack-obama">President Barack Obama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mitt-romney">Mitt Romney</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tony-perkins">Tony Perkins</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/paul-ryan">Paul Ryan</a></span></div></div>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:46:36 +0000Rob Boston7906 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/poison-pen-james-dobson-s-latest-missive-misses-the-mark#commentsGirl Scouts On The Rack: Catholic Bishops Have Just A Few Questions…. http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/girl-scouts-on-the-rack-catholic-bishops-have-just-a-few-questions
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is conducting an “official inquiry” into the frightening activities of those insidious cookie-mongers.
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The Roman Catholic bishops seem to have a problem with strong, independent women, don’t they?</p><p>The hierarchy recently launched an offensive against American nuns, accusing them of supporting “radical feminism” and failing to show sufficient enthusiasm for the bishops’ efforts to ban abortion and deny civil rights to gays. Now the all-male church leadership has decided to subject the Girl Scouts to an inquisition.</p><p>Several media reports today say the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is conducting an “official inquiry” into the frightening activities of those insidious cookie-mongers.</p><p>Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/catholic-bishops-continue-to-delve-into-concerns-about-girl-scouts/2012/05/10/gIQAqaRlGU_story.html">told <em>The Washington Post</em>,</a> “There had been some complaints about the Scouts, and the bishops couldn’t turn a deaf ear. So they want to know, what’s the story?”</p><p>I think we all know what “the story” is, Sister. Some Girl Scout leader sometime somewhere mentioned someone who supports birth control. And we can’t have that, can we?</p><p>Seriously, it’s that ridiculous.</p><p>Religious Right leaders have been playing this game for years. As my colleague Rob Boston<a href="http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/cookie-monsters-religious-right-marks-anniversary-of-girl-scouts-with-bogus"> reported earlier this year,</a> Focus on the Family and FOF founder James Dobson have accused the group of pushing “a philosophy that includes humanism and radical feminism.” Two years ago, Charles W. Colson called for a boycott of the annual cookie sale.</p><p>Now the bishops have decided to get in on the fun.</p><p>According to an AP account, critics say the Girl Scouts have ties to Planned Parenthood (they don’t) and shouldn’t take stands on abortion, birth control and sexuality (they don’t). They also shouldn’t have any contact with any groups like the Sierra Club, Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam that don’t toe the bishops’ line on family planning. </p><p>The critics blast the Girl Scouts' membership in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, which (horrors!) has sometimes supported discussion of sex and sexuality. The U.S. organization sets its own policies, of course, and doesn’t necessarily follow the leadership of the larger association, but apparently that isn’t good enough for the folks with the torches and pitchforks.</p><p>The critics also complain about a 1993 decision that allowed girls to “substitute wording appropriate to their own spiritual beliefs” for the word “God” in the Girl Scout promise – "On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country." That opens the door to everyone from Atheists to Zoroastrians! Can’t have that, can we?</p><p>Conservative Catholic activist Mary Rice Hasson <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/0511/Girl-Scouts-under-scrutiny-from-Catholic-bishops/%28page%29/2">told the AP,</a> “The leadership of the Girl Scouts is reflexively liberal. Their board is dominated by people whose views are antithetical to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”</p><p>So now we’re getting to the crux of the matter. The Girl Scouts are a nonsectarian group that welcomes girls and women from many perspectives about religion and teaches them to be strong and independent.</p><p>I’ve never been a member of the Girl Scouts, but my AU colleague Rebecca Davis-Nord has. She says she learned first aid, camping, public service and “definitely to think for ourselves and to value ourselves as young women.”</p><p>No wonder the bishops have them on the rack.</p><p>Here’s the bottom line: The Religious Right and the Catholic hierarchy are increasingly joining forces to try to impose their doctrines on every aspect of American society. They want dominion, and they’re pulling every conceivable lever to get it.</p><p>Just say no – and<a href="http://www.girlscoutcookies.org/"> buy another case </a>of Do-Si-Do’s.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/girl-scouts">Girl Scouts</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/us-conference-catholic-bishops">U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/focus-family">Focus On The Family</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-dobson">James Dobson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/charles-colson">Charles Colson</a></span></div></div>Fri, 11 May 2012 16:13:19 +0000Joseph L. Conn7070 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/girl-scouts-on-the-rack-catholic-bishops-have-just-a-few-questions#commentsPresidential Opt-Out: Obama Skips Dobsons’ Religious Right Prayer Rally http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/presidential-opt-out-obama-skips-dobsons-religious-right-prayer-rally
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Bishop Jackson said Christians are a majority in America, but the Obama administration doesn’t operate with a &#039;majority belief system.&#039; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Is America a fundamentalist Christian nation where government and religion are merged?</p><p>Of course not. But if you stopped by the Cannon House Office Building here in Washington, D.C., today, you’d certainly think so.</p><p>The National Day of Prayer <a href="http://nationaldayofprayer.org/">Task Force</a> commandeered a large room there for the morning and turned it into a fundamentalist revival tent, replete with the usual Religious Right mix of faith and partisanship.</p><p>The Task Force, as you probably know, is run by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. The Dobsons organize events all around the country on the National Day of Prayer (NDP), and they limit speakers at the rallies to those who share their religious-political agenda.</p><p>It’s no accident that they chose as the Task Force’s honorary chairman this year California pastor David Jeremiah. Jeremiah is best <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1211010">known for attacking </a>President Barack Obama as a “dangerous man” who is moving America “toward socialism and away from our historical moorings.”</p><p>The purpose of the Dobson campaign is threefold: to proselytize for their fundamentalist Christian worldview, to raise Religious Right political influence and to undercut as much as possible the separation of church and state.</p><p>The event at the congressional office building was no exception. I watched it on television, and it was the usual stew of fervent sectarian worship with more than a hint of partisanship. In addition to bringing in gospel singers and choirs, the Dobsons tried to recruit representatives from the military and the three branches of government. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton came from the judiciary, U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) stood in for the legislative branch and Rear Admiral Mike Parks of the Coast Guard represented the military.</p><p>To its credit, the Obama White House declined to send someone over. Mrs. Dobson was clearly irked at this snub, just as she’s annoyed that the Obama administration cancelled the NDP event held at the White House annually during the George W. Bush years.</p><p>To get even, Mrs. Dobson brought forward Obama critic Bishop Harry Jackson to stand in for the executive branch. Jackson is best known for his harsh attacks on marriage equality for gay people, and he often appears at Religious Right events.</p><p>Jackson’s remarks were predictable. He criticized the administration for refusing to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, the discriminatory federal legislation that bars federal recognition of state-approved civil marriages of gay people. Reflecting the Religious Right’s current meme, he also claimed that religious liberty “is being challenged” in our nation.</p><p>Jackson said Christians are a majority in America, but the Obama administration doesn’t operate with a “majority belief system.” Executive branch staff members, he complained, “don’t have a unified central core of belief.”</p><p>You got that right, bishop. In America, our “central core of belief” is not one particular faith, but freedom of conscience for all. </p><p>Under the terms of a (patently unconstitutional) federal law, President Barack Obama is required to declare a national day of prayer each year on the first Thursday in May. He did so, but he<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/01/presidential-proclamation-national-day-prayer-2012"> noted in his remarks</a>, “On this National Day of Prayer, we give thanks for our democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.”</p><p><em>To pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.</em> That pretty much sums it up.</p><p>I wish President Obama would just tell Congress: “Sorry, Congress, the Constitution doesn’t give government the right to intervene in religious matters. Americans are perfectly capable of deciding on their own when – or whether – they want to pray. So, I’m going to pass on issuing an annual proclamation.”</p><p>That would be in keeping with the intent of our Founders. Both <a href="http://www.au.org/files/images/page_photos/jefferson-and-madison-on.pdf">Thomas Jefferson</a> and <a href="http://www.au.org/files/images/page_photos/james-madison-on.pdf">James Madison</a> thought the president shouldn’t give Americans instructions about prayer.</p><p>But if the president is unwilling to do that, at least he has made his proclamation nonsectarian and avoided giving a platform to Religious Right forces that are up to no good. Good for him!</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-mottos-pledges-and-resolutions">Religious Mottos, Pledges and Resolutions</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/national-day-prayer">National Day of Prayer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/shirley-dobson">Shirley Dobson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-dobson">James Dobson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/national-day-prayer-task-force">National Day of Prayer Task Force</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bishop-harry-jackson">Bishop Harry Jackson</a></span></div></div>Thu, 03 May 2012 17:38:41 +0000Joseph L. Conn7058 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/presidential-opt-out-obama-skips-dobsons-religious-right-prayer-rally#commentsDeception In North Dakotahttp://www.au.org/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/deception-in-north-dakota
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>For progressive activist Don Morrison, a “religious liberty” amendment on the upcoming North Dakota ballot is cause for alarm.</p><p>“This measure will give certain people a license to violate the human rights of people they don’t like,” said Morrison, former executive director of ND People, an advocacy group that works for social and economic justice. “That’s just plain wrong in America.”</p><p>Morrison and other advocates of civil rights and civil liberties are worried about Measure 3, a constitutional amendment on the June primary ballot. Called the “Religious Liberty Restoration Act,” the proposal would dramatically rewrite the relationship between religion and government in North Dakota.</p><p>Proponents say it would merely strengthen religious liberty rights that have been placed in jeopardy by Supreme Court rulings. But critics say the broadly worded amendment would give already powerful religious organizations sweeping new legal weapons to override the rights of women, taxpayers and minorities.</p><p>Measure 3 was birthed by an alliance of the state’s Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Religious Right.</p><p>The North Dakota Catholic Conference (NDCC), the influential lobbying arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, spearheaded a petition drive that collected signatures to put the plan before the voters.</p><p>Christopher Dodson, the NDCC’s executive director, said his organization often has to lobby legislators in Bismarck for exemptions from new laws. With the adoption of Measure 3, that process would take place automatically.</p><p>“Legislators would not have to foresee the impact of a bill on every type of religious believer,” he wrote in a column for <em>Dakota Catholic Action</em>. “Lobbyists would not have to review the hundreds of bills introduced each session and seek necessary exemptions.”</p><p>The bishops had help from the North Dakota Family Alliance, the state’s leading Religious Right group. The Alliance, the local affiliate of the James Dobson-founded Focus on the Family, assisted with petition circulation and promotion.</p><p>Tom Freier, Alliance executive director, said churches and some 700 petition circulators participated in the drive. They collected some 30,000 names, well beyond the 25,688 signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot.</p><p>The amendment language reads: “Government may not burden a person’s or religious organization’s religious liberty. The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be burdened unless the government proves it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest. A burden includes indirect burdens such as withholding benefits, assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities.”</p><p>Proponents contend the measure will simply restore protections that courts applied until 1990 when the U.S. Supreme Court held that general laws apply to everyone even if they inadvertently infringe on individual religious freedom. The decision in <em>Employment Division v. Smith</em>, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, remains controversial, and critics on both the left and right consider it rather rigid.</p><p>But advocates of church-state separation are also very wary of sweeping constitutional “fixes” that could give organized religion too much power and jeopardize the rights of minorities.</p><p>North Dakota activist Morrison believes Measure 3 is one way for the Catholic hierarchy and other conservative church entities to opt out of anti-discrimination laws and other legislation intended to advance the public good.</p><p>“It will legitimize hurtful acts towards people in North Dakota who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender and people who are not the ‘correct’ kind of Christian,” he said. “The people promoting this are people who use fear of others as a tactic to move their agenda, and if this measure passes, it will give some powerful institutions like hospitals and churches more power to say it is OK to ostracize people they don’t like.”</p><p>Americans United for Separation of Church and State is also concerned. AU legal experts think the amendment could have a very negative effect.</p><p>Said AU Associate Legal Director Alex J. Luchenitser, “Measure 3 could force the state government to provide taxpayer funds to religious groups. It would also cause religious groups to be favored over non-religious groups.</p><p>“As a result of Measure 3,” he continued, “religious groups and persons could claim exemptions from laws intended to protect people’s rights, such as laws requiring the provision of reproductive health services or prohibiting the infusion of religion into public education.”</p><p>The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood have also expressed serious reservations.</p><p>Said Robert Doody, executive director of the ACLU of the Dakotas, “This proposed amendment could lead people to refuse to follow virtually any law. It could allow people to argue that they have a right to abuse their children, refuse to hire people of different religious faiths or deny emergency health care.”</p><p>Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, thinks Measure 3 is part of the Catholic hierarchy’s national campaign to sanction discrimination under the guise of protecting religion.</p><p>“Picking a primary election in a conservative state like North Dakota is no accident,” Stoesz observed in a letter to the editor of <em>The New York Times</em>. “It is part of the well-financed national campaign by the American Catholic bishops to find traction in states that tend to be out of the eye of the national press and discourse.”</p><p>Legal scholars confirm that Measure 3 is so broadly written that no one knows how the courts might define it.</p><p>Steven R. Morrison, a professor at the University of North Dakota School of Law, says <a href="/files/magazine_article_pictures/North%20Dakota%20Measure%20Three%20Memo.pdf">the proposed amendment is “strikingly broad”</a> and would certainly result in increased litigation as proponents and opponents struggle to see how judges interpret it.</p><p>According to his research, a dozen states have enacted religious liberty laws in response to the high court’s <em>Smith</em> decision, but only one – Alabama – has adopted a constitutional amendment.</p><p>Morrison (no relation to the North Dakota activist with the same last name) said the amendment isn’t problematic in so far as it protects religious individuals whose faith-motivated conduct doesn’t interfere with the rights of others. But when religious people and institutions are protected at the expense of third parties, problems necessarily ensue.</p><p>For example, Morrison said, under the amendment, a pharmacist might be able to refuse to fill a birth control prescription or a hospital employee could refuse to participate in an emergency abortion.</p><p>“North Dakota,” Morrison noted, “is a large, sparsely populated rural state, and many people may have access to only one pharmacy or one hospital…. The amendment will protect religious practice, but its negative externalities may severely curtail others’ enjoyment of their own constitutional rights.”</p><p>The professor says the amendment will affect everything from drug enforcement and zoning law to health care access and taxpayer funding of religious programs.</p><p>Regardless of its controversial character and uncertain impact, Measure 3 is headed for the ballot in June, and the political battle over it is likely to be heated and divisive. If it passes in North Dakota, church-state observers expect to see similar propositions in states around the country.</p><p align="center">• • •</p><p>If you live in North Dakota and want to get involved in Measure 3, contact AU Legislative Assistant Emily Krueger at: action@au.org.</p></div></div><a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><h3 >‘Religious Liberty’ Amendment On June Ballot Would Jeopardize Rights Of Women, Taxpayers And Minorities, Critics&nbsp;Say</h3><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Featured</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-government-subsidies-religious-institutions-not-including-schools">Other Government Subsidies of Religious Institutions</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/marriage">Marriage</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/reproductive-health-conscience-clauses-for-religious-objectors">Reproductive Health &amp; Conscience Clauses for Religious Objectors</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-privacy-issues-including-end-of-life-matters-etc">Other Privacy Issues (including end-of-life matters, etc.)</a></span></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-6791" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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<h2><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state">
The <span class="cs-month field">March</span> <span class="cs-year field"><span class="date-display-single">2012</span></span> issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/the-forsyth-saga-final-chapter">The Forsyth Saga, Final Chapter </a></h3>
<h4>Supreme Court Refusal Brings Long-Running North Carolina Prayer Dispute To A Happy Ending</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/exceptional-power">Exceptional Power</a></h3>
<h4>Supreme Court Says ‘Ministerial Exception’ Trumps Civil Rights Laws When Religious Organizations Hire Clergy</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/deception-in-north-dakota">Deception In North Dakota</a></h3>
<h4>‘Religious Liberty’ Amendment On June Ballot Would Jeopardize Rights Of Women, Taxpayers And Minorities, Critics Say</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/abc-about-face-in-arkansas">ABC About-Face In Arkansas</a></h3>
<h4>State Officials Issue New Regs Barring Taxpayer-Funded Religion In Preschools, After AU Complaint</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/misguided-military-maneuvers">Misguided Military Maneuvers</a></h3>
<h4>U.S. House Approves Bills Authorizing Sectarian Symbols And Prayer At War Memorials</h4> </div>
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<h3 class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/house-vote-on-fdr-prayer-at-world-war-ii-memorial">House Vote On FDR Prayer At World War II Memorial</a></h3>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/editorial/clashing-over-contraceptives">Clashing Over Contraceptives</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/editorial/creating-costly-controversy">Creating Costly Controversy</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/people-events/obama-decision-on-birth-control-sparks-battle">Obama Decision On Birth Control Sparks Battle With U.S. Bishops</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/people-events/pa-archbishop-demands-school-choice-%E2%80%93-while">Pa. Archbishop Demands School Choice – While Denying It To Parents</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/march-2012-church-state/people-events/delaware-school-district%E2%80%99s-push-for-christian">Delaware School District’s Push For Christian Prayer Ends At Supreme Court</a></span> </div></li>
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/focus-on-the-family">Focus on the Family</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right People:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/james-c-dobson">James C. Dobson</a></span></div></div>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:47:43 +0000Susan Hansen6794 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/church-state/march-2012-church-state/featured/deception-in-north-dakota#commentsReligious Right Groups Remain Divided Over GOP Presidential Fieldhttp://www.au.org/church-state/february-2012-church-state/people-events/religious-right-groups-remain
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p align="left">Religious Right organizations remain divided over the field of potential Republican presidential hopefuls and are stepping up their efforts to find a consensus candidate.</p><p align="left">Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney narrowly won the Iowa caucuses in January, edging out former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes. Although numerous media pundits consider Romney the front-runner, many in the Religious Right are not sold on his candidacy. Some are put off by his Mormon faith, while others say he’s not conservative enough.</p><p align="left"><em>Politico</em>, a Washington, D.C., newspaper, reported after the Iowa caucuses that several “national conservative leaders” planned to meet at a ranch in Texas to discuss the candidates. The meeting was convened by Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson, American Family Association founder Donald Wildmon and Gary Bauer of American Values.</p><p align="left">Many Religious Right leaders had pinned their hopes on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who jumped into the race in August shortly after hosting a high-profile prayer rally at Reliant Stadium in Houston. But Perry quickly stumbled and performed poorly in a string of GOP debates, and his candidacy has not caught on with rank-and-file GOP voters.</p><p align="left">Perry finished a distant fifth in Iowa, capturing only 10 percent of the vote. Although he vowed to stay in the race, rumors of his political demise continue to circulate. (U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, also a great favorite of the Religious Right, did so poorly in the caucuses – with only 5 percent of the vote – that she dropped out of the race.)</p><p align="left">According to <em>Politico</em>, many Religious Right leaders believe that Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will bloody each other during the remaining primaries and caucuses, leaving Romney in command of the field and a clear road to the nomination.</p><p align="left">U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) also remains a factor. Paul, who finished third in Iowa with 21 percent of the vote, doubled his support among evangelicals from 2008, reported CNN.com.</p><p align="left">Polling by CNN showed that self-identified evangelicals in Iowa leaned toward Santorum. The ex-senator captured 34 percent of their votes. Paul captured 18 percent, while Romney, Perry and Gingrich each took 14 percent. (The remaining voters were spread among other candidates.)</p><p align="left">The Texas confab, which took place Jan. 13-14, may have been designed as a rally for Santorum, but it’s by no means a given that all Religious Right figures will back him. Wildmon, now retired from the AFA, has already endorsed Gingrich.</p><p align="left">Santorum has won some Religious Right endorsements, but until mid January, none were particularly high-profile figures. He was endorsed by Bob VanderPlaats of an Iowa group called The Family Leader and some Iowa pastors who are active in far-right politics.</p><p align="left">In New Hampshire, which held its primary Jan. 10, Santorum won endorsements from several right-wing pastors as well. But New Hampshire contains fewer evangelical voters than Iowa, and the primary was not competitive. Romney won easily with 39 percent of the vote.</p><p align="left">The next major primary, South Carolina, took place Jan. 21, after <em>Church &amp; State</em>’s press deadline.</p></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">People &amp; Events</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-6685" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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<h2><a href="/church-state/february-2012-church-state">
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right Organization:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/focus-on-the-family">Focus on the Family</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix long-label"><div class="field-label">Religious Right People:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/donald-wildmon">Donald Wildmon</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/resources/religious-right/james-c-dobson">James C. Dobson</a></span></div></div>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:23:08 +0000Susan Hansen6689 at http://www.au.orghttp://www.au.org/church-state/february-2012-church-state/people-events/religious-right-groups-remain#comments